Quick Links and Time-Saving Research Tools


Resources, answers, and people:

  • HOLLIS: Harvard's library catalog, combined with a mega-database of journal articles and other resources
  • Library.Harvard: the virtual "front door" to library hours and locations, the HOLLIS catalog, information on borrowing, library databases, and other tools.
  • Ask a Librarian: a central site for asking questions about the library and browsing a growing knowledge base of FAQs.  Also provides links to research guides, contact information for reference desks, and more.
  • Library Staff Directory: especially helpful for finding language specialists
  • Research Librarians by Subject: every Harvard school, academic department, and program has one or more library liaisons attached to it -- people with the special subject expertise to advise you on research options and library collections that can help you get your work done. This page identifies the librarians who work with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard and provides email contact information. We will refer you to library colleagues at Harvard's graduate and professional schools, like Law or HKS, for example -- if necessary.
  • Suggest a purchase: if the libraries don't own something you think they should, submit a request here. You can be notified when the item arrives.

Time-saving research tools:

  • Journal Search: a page to help you locate journal articles that you've identified elsewhere (from a published bibliography, for example) and want access to. When you enter information about the journal or journal article, the "Find an Article by Citation" does a search of Harvard's e-resources and identifies your options for getting full-text online. It will also link you to the HOLLIS catalog for items that are only available in print.
  • Google Scholar: lets you search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Be sure to use this particular link into Google Scholar so it recognizes you as a Harvard affiliate, and you can get full-text of most articles for free.
  • Zotero and EndNote: software to help you collect and organize references from online sources (or elsewhere), create a searchable personal database, find and cite these references while writing, and create bibliographies in your style of choice (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.). Librarians have created an FAQ on Citation and Research Management Tools at Harvard which you can consult for further information, including links to schedules of training sessions. 
  • Scan and Deliver: a service offered by many Harvard libraries and useful for obtaining PDFs of articles and book chapters from items that are listed in the HOLLIS catalog.  Look for the "Scan and Deliver" link (next to call number and location information) and follow the prompts from there.  Scan and Deliver takes 1-4 business days and is limited to a certain number of requests.
  • Lean Library: a Firefox extension that provides quick and simple access to digital content purchased by Harvard Library. Also available is the Check Harvard Library bookmarklet, to see if Harvard has a subscription to content on a webpage, such as a journal article.

Contact Information and Credits

This guide was originally assembled by Cheryl LaGuardia and later modified by Pam Matz, with much of it derived from other guides created by Sue Gilroy, Cheryl LaGuardia, Kathleen Sheehan, and Diane Sredl; sincerest thanks go to them for their generosity in allowing the reuse of their material. It is now maintained by Hugh Truslow, who is Head, Social Sciences and Visualization in the Services for Academic Programs department of Harvard Library.


Hugh Truslow, Head, Social Sciences and Visualization. Email: truslow@fas.harvard.edu

Fred Burchsted, Research Librarian, Widener Library,  Email: burchst@fas.harvard.edu

Sue Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Programs for Writing, Lamont and Widener Libraries, Email: sgilroy@fas.harvard.edu

Steve Kuehler, Research Librarian, Lamont Library, Email: kuehler@fas.harvard.edu

Kathleen Sheehan, Research Librarian, Widener Library, Email: ksheehan@fas.harvard.edu